It’s the new Land Rover Defender!*

This is not a special edition. It’s not a new-old one either. It’s not a modified one, nor is it a Bond special nor mad racing version. It is, in fact, the new new Land Rover Defender, revealed here by Land Rover in camouflage guise, lurking suspiciously near Land Rover’s base.

It’ll be lurking less suspiciously along the highways and byways of Britain – and the world, no doubt – in 2020, when it’ll be officially unveiled. Yes folks, we have confirmation that in just a couple of years time, the new Defender will be finished.

Land Rover won’t tell us much about the new car. And by much, we mean nada. “Jaguar Land Rover runs a wide range of engineering and technology development programmes,” a spokesperson said. “We can confirm that the Defender programme is progressing well and has reached an exciting stage of its development.”

What that stage actually is remains unclear. But what is clear is that it's got a body (DC100 concept, anyone?), it's got a chassis, there is an engine, it moves under its own steam and they've found a roundabout.

Speaking of that DC100 concept, itself launched back in 2011, Land Rover noted at the time how it was “determined that the new Defender will be true to its heritage, while meeting the requirements of a changing global market.”

The old Defender ran for 67 years and is basically part of the world’s motoring landscape. This new one has some pretty big boots to fill. Stay tuned for more. In the meantime, here's the time we said farewell to the old Defender.